Dubai: Dubai Municipality is expanding the emirate’s green areas to 1.7 million square metres — or 5 per cent of the city’s gross area — that will give every person 3.1 square metres of green space.
Speaking at the ‘Meet the CEO’ event organised by the Government of Dubai Media Office on Tuesday, Dawood Al Hajiri, director-general of Dubai Municipality, said the civic body has planted 204,000 trees and is using a sustainable greywater irrigation system.
In collaboration with the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre, the municipality will launch the region’s first environmental nanometric satellite known as DM SAT1 to collect and analyse environmental data that will be used to develop solutions for increasing pollution in cities and address climate change.
Al Hajiri also discussed strategic projects including the Dubai Deep Tunnel Storm Water System, Waste Management Centre, and Dubai Traditional Market.
The Dubai Deep Tunnel Storm Water System aims to collect and convey groundwater and storm water runoff, store it and direct it to the sea. The project is critical to face challenges from rains over the next 100 years.
Built on two hectares of land in the Warsan area, the Waste Management Centre is the world’s largest single waste-to-energy plant. The plant will consume the city’s solid, industrial and commercial waste and convert it into electricity.
Gases produced by the waste will be burned in order to turn a steam turbine to generate electricity. Incombustible material will be left as recyclable ash, from which useful metals can be extracted for reuse while the gas will be treated with lime and filtered to minimise the release of pollutants during processing.
Dubai Deep Tunnel Storm Water System
Capacity: 110 cubic metres per minute
It can drain 40 per cent of the storm water from the entire area of the city, serving the whole of Dubai South, home to Dubai’s Al Maktoum Airport and Expo 2020.
Waste Management Centre
Has a thermal transfer efficiency of 29 per cent
First line of the plant will be operational in 2022 and full lines will be ready by 2023
Area: 55 acres
Processing capacity: 1.9 million tonnes a year
Housing project
Three new residential areas for citizens have been allocated in Al Roya3, Wadi Shabak and Mishref
Plots: 10,000
